Some electrical connectors have a mating end wherein conductive terminals are exposed for engagement with the terminals of a mating connector. This is common in a right angled connector used for interconnecting circuit boards such as a back plane and a daughter board. The back plane typically has a connector, commonly referred to as a receptacle, that mates with a daughter board connector, commonly referred to as a header. Portions of the terminals in either the receptacle or header are often exposed for engagement with the terminals of the header connector.
In at least some right angled receptacle connectors, the receptacle includes a plurality of wafers or exposed contact pins, each of which includes signal carrying traces and ground traces along with signal and ground contact pads. Applying these traces to wafers is expensive. Alternately, overmolding conductive stamped layers, sometimes referred to as leadframes, have been utilized in place of the wafers to manufacture these connectors. However, prior to mating with the daughter board, the exposed, elongated contacts of the connector are fragile and susceptible to damage.
A need remains for a connector that addresses these shortcomings in a cost effective manner and without adding to the size or complexity of the connector.